grabbed my attention wrong?

[ostap77]

"The picture that was hanging in the loby grabbed my attention."

I'm not getting this but I was told by my Ukrainian teacher it would be incorrect to say this.????

 

[bhaisahab]

"The book that was hanging in the loby grabbed my attention."

I'm not getting this but I was told by my Ukrainian techer it would be incorrect to say this.????

I can't see anything wrong with "grabbed my attention", but "hanging in the lobby" is more than a little strange.

 

[ostap77]

I can't see anything wrong with "grabbed my attention", but "hanging in the lobby" is more than a little strange.

I was thinking the picture hanging.....

 

[bhaisahab]

I was thinking the picture hanging.....

Pictures hang, books don't.

 

[birdeen's call]

Pictures hang, books don't.

I pictured a procession of sinister-looking men dragging shackled books to the gallows built in the lobby. :shock:

 

[ostap77]

I pictured a procession of sinister-looking men dragging shackled books to the gallows built in the lobby. :shock:

"The speaker grabbed an audience." If I looked through the window and saw my room-mate walking down the street, could I say "I was waving at you when you were walking down the street but couldn't grad you (meaning couldn't grab his attention)"?

 

[JMurray]

If I looked through the window and saw my room-mate walking down the street, could I say "I was waving at you when you were walking down the street but couldn't grab you (meaning couldn't grab his attention)"?

ostap.
You would have to reach through the window to grab him. When you call or wave to someone walking by, you are trying to "get", "attract" or "grab" their attention. But "it grabbed my attention" often conveys a stronger sense of "seized" or "gripped", as the vision of the contents of a library hanging from a gibbet might do.

not a teacher